


Paying the Price

by Skywinder



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autobot Skywarp, Autobot Starscream, Broken Friendships, Consequences, Espionage, Gen, War Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:08:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24598774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skywinder/pseuds/Skywinder
Summary: Every choice we make comes with a tag attached.  And in time, the bill always comes due.Somewhat of a continuation of Close Encounters of the Unlikely Kind, chapter 2 (Game of Spies)
Relationships: Starscream & Skyfire, Starscream & Skywarp
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Paying the Price

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Close Encounters of the Unlikely Kind](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15170219) by [Skywinder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skywinder/pseuds/Skywinder). 



> Was kind of inspired to write this after seeing a couple stories for TFP Autobot Starscream week. It sparked something in my head and I thought I'd give it a go. Not TFP, but I think this is a good future possibility for the Spy!Starscream and Spy!Skywarp I created in Close Encounters of the Unlikely Kind.
> 
> To Spark of My Spark readers, that one will be worked on next.

* * *

_"but remember, nothing comes without a price. Our paths are not mapped; they’re made.”_ ― Priya Ardis, _Ever My Merlin_

 _“Peter's face clouded. "Everything comes at a price. Or have you not learned that yet?”_ ― Brom, _The Child Thief_

* * *

_Okay...Just a few drops of liquid beryllium to this mixture, and that should work_ , Skyfire thought as he used a dropper to finish up the solution he’d been working on. Setting the fluid over a Bunsen flame, he smiled. _If that works, we might be able to replicate a new kind of energon supplement._

“We need to talk.”

The smile slipped from Skyfire’s face at the sound of the voice behind him. “How did you get in here, Starscream?”

“Perceptor let me into the labs. He’s getting more than a little concerned with your avoidance of everyone lately,” Starscream replied tersely, from where he was leaning against the doorframe of Skyfire’s personal lab, arms crossed. “For that matter, so are quite a few others. So when Perceptor made the offer, I accepted it.”

“My keeping to myself is hardly anything new, Starscream,” Skyfire spoke tensely, keeping his optics squarely on the heating solution. “And you know that very well.”

Starscream’s features became a thin line. “Normally, I would agree, but even you never went so far as to sleep in the labs or eat nothing for more than two orns. And now you’ve gone four.” He pushed himself off the doorframe now. “Nor did you ever refuse to respond to your internal comms before.”

The Seeker stepped into the lab now. “This is about what Optimus Prime and the rest of the command kept from you, isn’t it?”

Skyfire’s wings tensed. “I think you should go now,” he replied, an edge to his voice.

“So it is,” Starscream replied flatly. He let out a heavy intake. “Skyfire,” he went on, more cautiously now, “there were reasons I couldn’t tell you. Why Optimus Prime and Ironhide couldn’t tell you...” 

“That you were a deep cover agent?” spat Skyfire, now whirling around, solution momentarily forgotten. “No, it was easier for you to shoot me down than tell me the truth. Easier to pretend to my face that you had grown insane and power hungry. And easier for your commanding officers to lie to my own face about it!”

“I had no choice in the matter, Skyfire,” Starscream returned, forcing himself to remain calm in the face of his old friend’s anger. After all, his fury was somewhat justified, given the circumstances. “If I’d given any hint of what I was really doing slip to you, Soundwave would have picked up on it, and…,” he let out a heavy intake now, “we both would have been killed. Or he would have used you as leverage over me in order to compromise my effectiveness. When I realized there was a chance to get you out of the picture, I took it.”

He smiled, slightly bitterly. “I did my best to keep my shots from being lethal, Sky,” he said softly. “It wasn’t something that brought me any pleasure, if that helps.”

Skyfire snorted. “It really doesn’t,” he shot back.

“No, I wouldn’t think so,” Starscream conceded softly. “And for whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth.”

Skyfire just glared at him for a moment before he turned away and went back to his experiment. “I have work to do, if you don’t mind.”

Starscream let out a weary-sounding vent. “Of course,” he whispered, a note of regret in his voice.

As he turned to leave the room, Starscream paused one last time and looked back. Skyfire’s wings were hiked high and stiff, tension showing in every part of his frame. He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Sky,” he whispered once more, then walked out of the room, the door closing behind him, with the sound of a click a moment later.

* * *

“I take it that it didn’t go well?”

Starscream chuckled mirthlessly as his comrade sat down next to him in the Rec Room. “That would be an understatement, Skywarp.”

He sipped his energon. “He’s still angry about what happened in the Arctic and at that temple later on. He’s also angry that he wasn’t kept in the loop, as it were.” Starscream rubbed at his optics. “I can’t say I entirely blame him. Like anyone else, Skyfire hates being made a fool of, and if I’m reading between the lines of what he said correctly, he feels that he was pushed into joining the Autobots under false pretenses.”

Skywarp just shook his head. “We didn’t really have a choice there, ya know. We always knew that we’d have to attack comrades or old friends in order to keep our cover. Just our bad luck that TC found us out at the temple and reported it to Megatron.”

Starscream grimaced, recalling Thundercracker’s face as he’d stepped out from the side of the altar where he’d been hiding, right after Skywarp had accepted the information packet to take to Mirage, who had been waiting nearby. The expression of betrayal and fury on his face had been something neither Seeker would ever forget. 

He’d wasted not a moment, calling them both traitors, and then fled the room. Once that had happened, Starscream had ordered Skywarp to get the information to Mirage while he tried to stop their “Trinemate”. 

Unfortunately, by the time he’d caught up to Thundercracker, the navy Seeker had already transmitted over comms to Soundwave what he’d seen.

Even now, two Earth months after the fact, Starscream couldn’t believe how quickly it had fallen apart. He and Skywarp had done all in their power to be careful, but all it had taken was one moment of carelessness. The tri-color Seeker still had no idea why Thundercracker had shown up like he had, as he’d been assigned to another part of the human temple that day. Whether he’d been suspicious of them or plotting something for himself, neither Seeker could be entirely sure. But neither of them had thought to scan the room for other presences, as they should have.

Skyfire had shown up while Skywarp was giving the report to Mirage, having spotted Starscream giving chase to Thundercracker and had hoped to warn his friends.

He’d been first shocked, then furious, when he realized what was actually going on. After flying them back to the base, he’d stalked right into Prime’s office and according to Red Alert, had reamed Optimus out with both Prowl and Jazz present. Prowl had told both he and Skywarp later on that they had tried to explain to Skyfire why he hadn’t been informed (basically, there hadn’t been an opportunity at all, given how fast events had played out in the Arctic and then at the temple later on), but it hadn’t helped.

After that, Skyfire had shut himself up in his lab, and hadn’t come out. Starscream’s visit had been a last-ditch effort to try and explain things to the irate shuttle.

“Give him time, Starscream,” Skywarp said now, the usual jovial tone gone from his voice. “He’ll cool down eventually.”

Starscream grimaced. “And if he doesn’t? He’s more stubborn than I am once something gets into his head, ‘Warp. And as I said, he’s not wrong to feel betrayed right now.”

“Then at least you know you tried,” Skywarp replied. “And in the meantime, we’re going to be busy dealing with the fallout of this whole mess.” He chuckled unpleasantly. “Wish we’d taken up Prowl on his offer to get us to a neutral colony when we’d had the chance.”

Starscream nodded. The downside to being a long-term deep cover agent was that so few of their fellow Autobots had any idea they were one of them. “We still could do that, he says. But it will take more time to arrange, and we’ll have to change our paint jobs in the meantime.”

“Eh, we’ll adapt. We always have,” the purple and black Seeker said with a shrug. He rose to his feet as he went on, “We’re survivors, Screamer. We’ll be okay.”

With those words and a purple flash, he was gone.

Alone in the Rec Room now, Starscream just swirled the energon in his cube as he thought.

_“We’re survivors, Screamer. We’ll be okay.”_

Starscream smiled bitterly, remembering Skyfire’s angry face and posture of just a few short breems ago.

 _Maybe so, Skywarp,_ he thought grimly.

_But Primus, at what cost?  
_


End file.
